Why Merkel changed her mind

BERLIN — Angela Merkel’s abrupt decision to reinstate controls on Germany’s border with Austria followed a hectic weekend during which the chancellor faced intense pressure from state and local officials expected to house and feed the growing wave of asylum seekers heading to the country.

Their message to the German leader: genug, enough.

Local governments have proved unable to cope with the large numbers. Now, they want Merkel to provide more support and pick up the bill.

On Tuesday night, following a four-hour meeting with state leaders, Merkel announced the federal government would provide more means and money. It will host 40,000 refugees on government property and deploy civilian army employees to help with the settlement.

State leaders want more. They expect at least double the €3 billion that Merkel had offered in financial help, Horst Seehofer, the powerful governor of Bavaria said.

“The mood is changing, and fast,” said a senior official from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. At a meeting of the party’s executive committee on Monday, state and local representatives made it clear they were overwhelmed by the masses.

“Every mayor likes to be a good German, as long as the refugees are not put into his gym,” the source said.

The rapid-fire developments are forcing Merkel, a leader famous for biding her time before taking important decisions, to adopt an unfamiliar playbook. A physicist by training, Merkel normally examines every angle, be it on Greece or Ukraine, before settling on a strategy. Even then, she prefers to let the problem simmer, often for months. Her associates call it “leading from behind.”

Instances where she’s taken important decisions under intense pressure, such as her move to accelerate Germany’s withdrawal from nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, have often ended in regret. The nuclear decision assuaged the public’s fear in the wake of the disaster, but placed an enormous burden on German industry by pushing electricity prices through the roof.

The refugee crisis, the greatest domestic challenge she has faced since then, appears to be taking a similar trajectory.

Merkel was being portrayed as the continent’s warm-hearted matriarch.

Merkel’s decision last month to guarantee Syrian refugees safe passage triggered a mad scramble to reach Germany. The move was a humanitarian gesture, intended to help ease a bottleneck in Hungary, where many refugees were stranded in makeshift camps in sweltering conditions.

Back in Germany, state and local officials were “completely surprised” by Merkel’s move and given little time to prepare, Roger Lewentz, the president of Germany’s conference of state interior ministers, told German radio on Monday.

“That was a mistake and I think that Berlin now realizes that,” he said of the communication breakdown.

Out of control

The main reason local governments weren’t involved is that Berlin didn’t anticipate the massive response the announcement would have.

As soon as it became clear that the move had unleashed a torrent, Merkel and other government officials tried in vain to qualify the announcement, insisting that Europe’s asylum rules, known as the Dublin system, were still in force. But once the refugees began to arrive in Munich and other cities where they were greeted by cheering Germans, it was clear there was no going back.

All of Germany appeared ready to lend a hand. Shelters were flooded with donations of food and clothing. Charities were overrun by prospective volunteers.

With much of the rest of Europe turning its backs on the refugees, Germans won respect around the world for welcoming them.

Though Merkel warned of the many challenges ahead, she too seemed to bask in the glow of what the German press dubbed the “September fairytale.” After months of being portrayed as Europe’s scold for her hard line in dealing with Greece, Merkel was being portrayed as the continent’s warm-hearted matriarch.

The first signs that the mood was shifting came on Friday, when senior officials from the Bavarian wing of Merkel’s center-right coalition publicly criticized her refugee policy.

“Soon, we will be in a state of emergency that we can’t control,” warned Seehofer.

Merkel remained defiant Tuesday, telling reporters in Berlin that she didn’t regret the decision. “If we start to apologize for showing a friendly face in an emergency, then that’s not my country.”

But by Sunday, nearly 20,000 refugees had arrived at Munich’s main train station, pushing the infrastructure there to the brink.

As refugees crowded the station, officials rushed to erect tents in a nearby park. In the end, authorities found enough beds and the tents remained empty, but it was clear that Munich was close to the breaking point.

Million migrants

Local businesses had begun to grumble about the impact the crisis would have on Munich’s annual Oktoberfest, which gets underway next week. Bavarian politicians were nervous.

But Bavaria, considered Germany’s conservative heartland, wasn’t alone. States and communities across Germany were complaining to Berlin that they couldn’t handle the influx.

Under Germany’s decentralized federal system, responsibility for dealing with the refugees falls on the states. Every day, thousands of new arrivals are sent to Germany’s 16 states and then allocated to local communities.

By the weekend, that system faced collapse. A number of states refused to accept more refugees from Bavaria.

Under pressure from Seehofer, Merkel agreed late Saturday to reintroduce border controls. The strategy was to present the move as a “signal to Europe,” a tactical decision meant to nudge other countries into taking more refugees. In reality, according to officials who described the deliberations among the country’s leaders this weekend, Germany simply couldn’t cope with the situation.

Before Merkel’s decision to relax the regulations, Berlin expected to take in 800,000 refugees, already a fourfold increase over 2014. On Monday, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the number could top one million, underscoring the massive resonance of Merkel’s decision has had.

But the resistance to a bigger commitment remains strong. Many capitals, in particular those in Eastern Europe, blame Berlin for encouraging more refugees to come and don’t want to take in more than a token number.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wants member states to share the burden by introducing binding national quotas. But the plan would only involve 120,000 refugees. With Germany alone now expecting up to one million, a forecast that could well be revised upward, it’s unlikely the quota plan would have significant impact.

Austria, meanwhile, said it expects Germany to honor its promise to take in the thousands of refugees now stranded there amid the tightened border security. It responded to Germany’s decision by introducing controls on its eastern and southern borders in an effort to stem the flow of refugees.

At meetings of senior officials from Merkel’s CDU on Monday, there was consensus that the government needed to devise a more coordinated approach to the crisis, according to people who took part.

While they agreed to consider proposals for a new citizenship law, something the party has so far resisted, they struggled to come up with more immediate ways to resolve the crisis.

“We’re all clueless as of today,” one official said. “No one knows what to do to solve this massive problem.”

Related stories on these topics:

Milton38

Was the German public not told, that the decision was the result of intense deliberations over the last two years?
It only shows that modern politicians are incapable of rational thought and quite frankly incapable of leading even when faced by a rather minor inconvenience.
In case of a real emergency people will be on their own and will have to fight their own battles for survival.
Even former stalwarts of contingency thinking, the military, have been emasculated into sitting behind desks and sending out drones; real leadership of men is almost impossible to find.
Poor humanity.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 6:06 AM CET

sylvain

Where is Merkel now ? Disappeared. A few days ago she announced that there would not be an upper limit for the number of migrants. I think de Maiziere spoke with her in plain language and threatened with resignation.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 9:10 AM CET

Rogue Trader

So let me get this straight – Germany is confronting its Nazi past and playing good humanitarian (by the way where have they been for the last four years) by blackmailing Eastern Europe into accepting thousands of unidentified predominantly Muslim migrants? Well played Angela, well played. Yet another example of “human engineering” from the good Germans.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 11:31 AM CET

wilson ruiz

Easy does it folks… this is just the first round of an on going bout. So far Merkel is ahead. She showed the world that Europe is in a position to accept thousands of refugees and did it.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 11:49 AM CET

Thucydides

Panic is all too human, but it does not demonstrate leadership.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 2:35 PM CET

Author

If policymakers in e.g. HU, CZ, SK, PL, FI and others would live up to EU norms about solidarity, they would accept to share the burden. But they won’t, so it’s clear that the Dublin Agreement needs to be replaced by EU rules that distribute refugees more evenly.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 5:33 PM CET

Rogue Trader

@Author Are you referring to the same EU norms of solidarity that were applied to the building of Nordstream, response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine and discriminatory agricultural subsidies just to quote a few? Thougth so. You only hear about the mystical EU solidarity when it benefits the West, and Germany in particular.

The world is watching in the states of the European Union working hard with our generosity of human rights all refugees

Posted on 9/15/15 | 6:28 PM CET

Normal Person

Mirror, mirror on the wall…Who is the biggest hypocrite of them all? A week ago the lunatic liberal press and the so called humanistic West was accusing Hungary for the inhumane conditions provided to the migrants. Now as that wave of uncontrolled humanity hits Germany, they are buckling under its weight. Germany should look in the mirror and apologize to Hungary!

Posted on 9/15/15 | 6:53 PM CET

moderateGuy

Actually that is totally wrong. Merkel did not change her, ah, mind. Closing German borders was meant to pressure the Visegrad four, which just ended a successful meeting, reaffirming opposition to quotas.
Merkel’s thinking was, if German borders are closed the immigrant invasion will swamp Hungary and perhaps even redirect the swarm north toward Poland, forcing Visegrad group to accept Franco-german dictat.

Interesting to compare the reporting – and most of all the comments with the facts. The border control has nothing to do with the number of refugees in Germany – the influx goes on in big numbers. The decision was based on the idea to spare Munich with its Oktoberfest and to slow the whole process of registration. Merkel did not change her mind. Not at all. “Than this is no more my country” – she said about the idea to close the borders. She is firm on this and I am proud of such an exemplary political leadership.

Posted on 9/15/15 | 10:45 PM CET

Szgp

@Johann Legner
Germany has accepted what it has planned to, perhaps a little more may come. France will accept 24,000. The remainder? There will be mandatory redistribution amongst the Visegrad four. You have e every reason to be proud of Angela Merkel, but never underestimate the Hungarians.

Steve

Galileosdaughter

If these people are genuine refugees (and it appears that only about one quarter meet that description) then treat them as refugees, not immigrants. Either establish refugee camps in Europe, settle the refugees there on two year renewable residency permits, or funnel all the billions of euro that this mess is going to cost into the existing refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, making them larger and more secure.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 1:55 AM CET

MartinGale

So let’s see: First “Mama Merkel” fires the starting pistol launching the great Muslim stampede for the Continent, only to then slam the door shut in their faces just as the flash mob approaches the Austrian/German frontier triggering the inevitable human pile-up. With this deft move “Mama Mia” and the rest of the political elites have now officially opened the slapstick era of geopolitics, only instead of getting a “pie in the face” we’ll get an “IED in the piazza”. Won’t that be hilarious!

Posted on 9/16/15 | 7:32 AM CET

Mackensen

Has any one of the authors or commentors ever been at the Austrian-German border? Most likely not! This is a tourist region with any number of well marked “Wanderwegen” crossing the border. Just look for the sign and follow the blue/white (or red/green or what’s however, it is nicely declared) sign on the trees and you will safely arrive in Germany. No way to control that and you hardly need a guide. So the controll on the border is nothing else but a demonstration, both to the Bavarian goovernment (to safe the holy Oktoberfest) and to the other governments in Europe.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 9:33 AM CET

Lizzie

If as the refugees claim, they are looking for a safe place, without war, why do they DEMAND to go to Germany. Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Turkey, Greece are all SAFE, the only difference is, that In Germany THEY believe, Milk and Honey runs in the streets and everything is free, in Germany they receive the most money and FREE social services, paid for by the GERMAN taxpayer.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 1:38 PM CET

Ami

My guess is that all this will lead to the EU trying to move forward with deeper EU integration, making it seem like there is no choice. If the crisis worsens, if terrorists implement coordinated attacks, won’t goverments and the EU start to tell us citizens that the best way to cope is to create an EU military force, to increase the speed of EU integration etc.?

Posted on 9/16/15 | 2:00 PM CET

ironwoker

The more rigid the refugee political approach the higher the borders pressure. This time is a loose – loose game for “clever physicist” Merkel. The longer she waits for things to settle by themselves, the bigger and complicated the problem. Maybe it’s time for Germany to pay (big bucks) for the war against ISIS, or she expect the yanks to do it (as usual) for her, at their expenses.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 2:03 PM CET

Rham

Germany and Europe will regret this irreversible damage. Now are the middle easterners and soon it will be the Africans. There will be no end to this mess. Current governments in Europe and the USA are to blame for allowing the mess in the middle east to escalate to this point. These “socialists” in charge are going to destroy the world.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 5:30 PM CET

alan.ritchie

Once upon a time people described Merkel as the most powerful politician in Europe. Now she is the most powerless, humbled by an unending flood of impoverished refugees & migrants.
Whatever goodwill the refugees/ migrants may have had towards Germany is probably rapidly disappearing.
The hectoring & bullying of Greece (& the rest of the EZ) during the most recent bail out has not been forgotten and is probably playing in to political reactions in Central & Eastern Europe
How the mighty have fallen – & taken the EU with them

Posted on 9/16/15 | 7:35 PM CET

AttilasDaughter

Strange how they talk about those people as new citizen.
The majority are young men and I find they should fight in and for their country.
Merkel has the support of some brainwashed youngster, but watch out for the silent majority.
I’m sure if asked the majority of Germans refuses more muslims.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 8:05 PM CET

windy

“If policymakers in e.g. HU, CZ, SK, PL, FI and others would live up to EU norms about solidarity, they would accept to share the burden.”

This is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to stop the flow of water. The migrants are refusing to stay in Hungary or other countries without generous benefits, and Finland already received more asylum seekers through Sweden this year than are in its planned quota!

Posted on 9/16/15 | 9:47 PM CET

Richard

Merkel is pure trash. Most coming are economic migrants, criminals and jihadists. As others have pointed out these people did not stop at first safe country, no they want the good life in Germany at German taxpayer expense. Half the crime in European nations is caused by third world people.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 10:27 PM CET

Theo

pexi

This was only a bad german morality comedy which only last one week…after Schultz has treaten his european “partners” of using the force to contrain all european to obey german orders…and that Ms Merkel has try to show an idealised german solidarity…the reality came back and Germany closed his borders seing that other european countries didn’t catch the morality game and the imposed repartition plan, next move…put in place an anti democratic majority to vote a solution that all european are against…especially in Germany…

Posted on 9/16/15 | 11:31 PM CET

mary marchant

Angela Merkel do you see what the migrants are doing before they get to Germany throwing stones at police NO
RESPECT, ungrateful bastards they have that MENTALITY I’m here I want this and that and NOW and I don’t want
to be fingered printed, What do you have to say now Angela.

Posted on 9/16/15 | 11:39 PM CET

venze

Merkel has no choice but to make a U-turn, otherwise she would face the music from her people. Or perhaps it just dawns on her of unavoidable negative consequences of taking in too many refugees.

Posted on 9/17/15 | 3:01 AM CET

MikeP

@Galileosdaughter

That is a great comment you made:

Most of these people are not true refugees. Most are young men that shout “I want a better life!” We should treat the problem at the source (Syria, Middle East, North Africa) and spend money there, better than letting them all in. Europe should protect it’s borders against illegal immigrants!!

“If these people are genuine refugees (and it appears that only about one quarter meet that description) then treat them as refugees, not immigrants. Either establish refugee camps in Europe, settle the refugees there on two year renewable residency permits, or funnel all the billions of euro that this mess is going to cost into the existing refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, making them larger and more secure.”

Posted on 9/17/15 | 3:56 AM CET

paleocon666

Merkel has been a disgrace. The problem is that the SPD is even worse. I dream of a AfD-NPD government that restores sanity in Germany.

Posted on 9/17/15 | 12:25 PM CET

Robert

Merkel is as dangerous as Herr Hitler to the stability of Europe she should resign immediately. Given the accepted wisdom that 2% of these refugees are actually isis she is also flooding Germany with dedicated terrorists. It is despicable folly by any stretch of the imagination.

Posted on 9/18/15 | 3:33 AM CET

GaelanClark

“No one knows what to do to solve this massive problem.”…….!?!?!?!?……..Okay, here is a novel suggestion, return their respective countries to them by removing the cause of their problem. Yes, that’s right, we have to use our armies to remove dictators and despots!
Don’t you liberals get it?…..THIS IS NECESSARY!!!

Posted on 9/18/15 | 11:55 AM CET

Robert Post

“We’re all clueless as of today,” one official said. “No one knows what to do to solve this massive problem.”
Here’s your clue: round them up and send them back.

Posted on 9/18/15 | 4:20 PM CET

Victor

Most of Islam, particularly from Pakistan to Morocco can not fit in with the rest of the World, not just the West, that is why Most immigrant Moslems can not integrate themselves and prosper in non-Moslem society.

The combination of radical ideas inside their heads ant their inability to succeed economically and socially in Paris, London, Berlin, Stockolm pushes many over the edge. They are reduced to live in ghettoes, without money, the pretty native girls ignore them and the Moslem girls are sexually repressed by their families. They have been told since todlers Islam is the superior idea. Islamic education also tells them Moslem countries are poor, disorganized because of the West, not because current Islam provides them with values and ideas that make it impossible for Moslem societies to advance.

Islam needs reform and discard certain ideas, just like Judaism and Christianity have done.

Beliefs widely supported or tolerated by millions of Moslems and their leaders, such as that women must cover themselves, that no churches or buddhist or whatever temples are allowed in Moslem countries, that do not allow Moslems to convert to other religions, that apply shariah laws like killing adulterous women, homosexuals, chop the arms of thieves, sex with virgins if jihadists die and so on, are not compatible with life in any Western country, Russia, China, India, Japan, non-Moslem Africa, all of Latin American, the Amazon Indians, Papua New Guinea, Eskimos, etc.

In fact, the beliefs of most Moslems are not compatible with those of fellow Moslems as we see what happens between Sunnis and Shiites, and even within those groups, slaughtering each other in a killing frenzy.

For those reasons most of Islam is not compatible with democracy, period.

It is not a matter of ethnicity, it is the beliefs Moslem education drills into children and adults that are the problem and prime many of them for violence. Most Muslims, even non-violent ones have been educated to become fanatics.

The only long term strategy is for Europe, Russia, China, India to first smash militarily, psychologically, socially, completely, the likes of ISIS and the Taliban. They must be so thoroughly destroyed no criminal crackpots will think or dream of jihad.

Simultaneously the rest of Moslem countries must be encouraged, pressured, intimidated if necessary, boicotted economically and even attacked militarily, so that the Islam that is taught is the one that makes people fit to create modern civilized countries, prosperous economies. Instead of indoctrination since children, imprinting for life in fact, with ideas and customs that turn many of them into murderous fanatics in Moslem countries and anywhere they move to.

Islam is not compatible with multiculturalism because current Islam practiced by most Moslems is intolerant, even of other Moslems. Those who promote indiscriminate multiculturalism must be run out of town.

Islam, for the most part, is stuck in the Midle Ages, perhaps it has even has gone backwards to ideas that are more cruel and primitive than the ideas those who converted to Islam had before Islam was born.

Islamic clerics who believe and preach Islam has to evolve in all of the above, plus separation from political power, plus telling men the idea of going to heaven and have unimaginable orgies with virgins is not true and is immoral, is abomination, etc., must receive massive help to promote tolerant Islam.

I mean Jews gave up on stoning adulterous women some 2000 years ago., the ancient Greeks never did that, the Christian churches abandon the idea of burning Jews and witches and so on.

The younc men who are coming to Germany now should be trained to use weapons, paid, educated in moderate Islam, turned into professional soldiers to help create modern societies and thus prevent the Moslem countries from creating the likes of Sadam Hussein, the Taliban, the Iranian Ayatollahs, Bocko Haram, Assad, Mubarak, Ghaddafi, Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Saudi Arabian corrupt rulers, the future blood thirsty leaders and the lunatics who bring down the World Trade Center, murder Jews in Europe, murder those who draw cartoons of The Prophet and would wipe Israel with nuclear bombs even it means 200 or 300 million Moslems will die in the process.

If we do not help Islam change it is only a matter of time until some nut gets hold of nuclear weapons, or worse, to go to heaven and meet the virgins, as long as he can obliterate Israel or Berlin, even if hundreds of millions of Moslems die.

Posted on 10/7/15 | 9:35 AM CET

Yffyugbu

And who’s going to pay, tax increase like it’s a game, young male migrants for the fun and the flirting doesn’t stop; the selfies, demanding wifi, cuisine and housing.

Posted on 10/20/15 | 2:13 AM CET

Victor lopez

Merkel’s decision on refugees-immigrants is insane; bad for Europe and bad for those coming in.
People who are unprepared in education and values to function effectively in modern society will end up poor, marginalized and frustrated. Most of them will be Moslems and we know well the propensity of too many Moslems to believe others are to blame for their misery.

Terrorist raised in Europe will learn sophisticated technology here and thus become way more deadly. Remember the sept. 11 Towers were brought down by Moslems who lived in Germany and the US

Massive emigration makes life easier for the corrupt-inept dictators, dictator-kings and the ruling wealthy-military-bureaucratic classes who, over and over, have shown their actions keep their citizens poor, angry, miseraple, ignorant and incapable of creating prosperous, free and peaceful societies. 10 million Moslems have died at the hands of Moslems since 1948. This means 2300 killed per week during 67 years!

The Moslems so uprooted will undergo massive culture shock faced with behaviour, attitudes, values, habits, laws directly opposed to current mainstream Moslem beliefs. Many will even argue the massive migration has been engineered by the West, perhaps the rest of the Non-Moslem world, to destroy Islam by first “converting” to modern paganism and its “abominable” practices, millions coming to Europe who then will visit and travel to Moslem countries to destroy Islam at home.

Merkel’s decision brings to Europe millions of anti Jews, many of them supporting violence or violent themselves.

Posted on 10/21/15 | 8:52 AM CET

Dennis Richardson

My European ancestry is English-Irish but I cannot imagine Germany that was once a great contributor to protestant Christianity in America. Do you not realize the mistakes you who have abandoned faith in Christ for secularism. Now this “convert to Islam or die”, making you afraid. I pray that Germany will find the courage that comes from the faith that your nation once had in Jesus Christ to put these barbarians out of Europe and restore the place that you once had. Islam is forcing the world realize that only faith in Christ will tell what to do. Put them out peaceably and live with your own German culture undefiled with Islam.

Posted on 10/28/15 | 6:51 AM CET

William

Simply appalling. As if by design, rather than fate.

Posted on 11/10/15 | 12:34 PM CET

Victor

Merkel has lost her political bearings. It shows in her erratic behaviour on migrants.

First she makes the uninmaginable mistake of opening borders with no controls, then the reaction of other European countries, German politicians and average Germans, she bactracked. Now, on nov 25 she reasserts her original policy.

What is wrong with German decision making at critical moments. I mean, in the UK her own party would have already tossed her out.

She is trying to transfom Germany into a multicultural country, an oxymoronic goal in itself, but not with Greeks, Spanish, Eastern Europeans and others than for cultural reasons will integrate.

No, she is bringing in millions of Moslems, people who do not integrate even in France and Belgium, although they already speak French when they arrived.

They have been unable to integrate themselves but their children and grand children are even less integrated.

If she thinks Germany can do a better with Syrians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and other Moslems then she has fallen prey to Churchill’s setereotype of German leadership; “incapable of making small mistakes”, just like VW. The average German, who has more sense in managing their lives than their leader and the lunatic left, and should take to the streets,

Moslems can not be integrated anywhere because mainstream Islam instills in them attitudes, customs, beliefs and behaviours about freedom, tolerance, work, etc., which are incompatible with, not just the West, but the rest of the World.

Let us face it, mainstream Islam is extreme, that is why it produces so many radical Moslem clerics who in turn produce so many suicidal murderers in the name of Islam. The way even mainstream Islam insists on women dress, for example, acts as a magnet for Moslem and non-Moslems misfits who are disorientede and need absolute truth. Islam today, particularly in its extreme criminal forms acts as those lazy whirlpoolss in rivers where all floating debris accumulate.

Posted on 11/25/15 | 1:55 PM CET

Godelieve

Angela Merkel, a highly educated and I guess, intelligent woman is single-handedly destroying Europe. And where may I ask, are her advisers in all this mess that she has created? People need to take to the streets and protest her abominable decisions and kick her out of office.
I’ve often heard here in the U.S. that Europe has done a poor job of integrating muslims but how does one mingle with people who believe in something so barbaric as sharia law?-who believe that a suicide bomber is going to some kind of heavenly orgy after they take the lives of innocent people? Apparently muslim men become so aroused at the sight of any part of a woman’s body that she must walk around looking like a black tent no matter how uncomfortable or hot the weather! What kind of minds do these men have? Maybe many women are in accord with this but that is only because of brainwashing and living in a patriarchal society. ” Yes, by all means come over and have a cup of coffee and tell me if you are still planning on killing your daughter for talking to that boy?” Come on, let’s get real here!
There cannot be any kind of compatibility with those who hold such views.I’m sure that there are muslims who hold more moderate views, who are educated and decent people and who are grateful to live free societies. These moderate muslims have a duty to speak out in support of their adopted countries.
While there is more information available for muslims who immigrate, how is it possible to know who you are letting in when it comes to refugees and what views they really hold?
I love The Netherlands and I have family there. It is a beautiful little country and I am deeply saddened for what is taking place there and in all of Europe. In my heart, I fear that it could already be too late. It is really time to start weeding out the troublemakers and wherever possible send them back to where they came from and to stop further refugees from entering.
As far as humanitarian aid is concerned, it must be aimed at Syria by setting up safe zones for those who are truly seeking safety. How to go about this? Let Angela Merkel and other politicians figure it out. Their primary concern should be to keep their own people safe and Angela Merkel is miserably failing at this!